Flint water pipes show varying degrees of rust and contamination. (Flint Water Study photo)

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DARK WATER: Children Suffer Most From Toxic Politics of Flint Crisis

January 19, 2016
By: Dave Rogers

The eyes of the nation --and the cameras of the major media -- now are on Flint, Michigan, as a result of its water crisis.

Presidential candidates and national commentators have begun to sling partisan mud, confirming Flint has the nation's attention -- and not in a positive way.

Political careers will crash because of misguided efforts to save $5 million on water costs.

And $5 million will be a drop in the proverbial bucket compare to the perhaps billions this situation will eventually cost the state of Michigan (read, us taxpayers).

The ill-conceived decisions made by the emergency mis-managers of this crisis -- sparking even greater emergencies -- betray a deeper misunderstanding about the duties of government to the health of the people, especially children.

"Here's how bad it is," wrote Charles Chamberlain of Democracy for America. "Last summer, scientists from Virginia Tech traveled to Flint to measure lead pollution in the water. What they found was that the water was 13,000 times above the safe level for lead. The EPA would classify water with that much lead as "toxic waste" -- yet that's what Gov. Snyder expected children in Flint to drink."

The old saw about closing the barn door after the horse has escaped applies here in spades.

Eighty-seven cases of Legionnaires disease, including 10 deaths, possibly stemming from the water pollution brought charges of "murder" and "environmental racism."

Federal and state court lawsuits will keep the matter in the headlines, wreck careers and create untold public costs for decades. (Remember the PCB in cow feed case of the 1970s?)

We cannot yet even conceive of the far-reaching and long-lasting impact of the Flint water debacle.

The Flint Water Study summarized: "The City of Flint had been purchasing drinking water from neighboring Detroit for almost half a century. With rising water costs rooted in an acute fiscal crisis, the city's Emergency Manager decided to stop this practice. Instead, the city decided to treat the nearby Flint River for potable use beginning April 30 of last year (2014)."

The United Way (UW) of Genesee County has estimated 6,000-12,000 children have been exposed to lead poisoning from the water supply. Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, Martin Luther King Day, U-W kicked off a public campaign to raise $100 million over 10-15 years for medical treatment of affected children.

That was an ironic and unfortunate juxtaposition of events in light of the facts that 57 percent of Flint's population are minorities, and more than 40 percent are in poverty.

Additional funding will be needed for special education, mental health, juvenile justice, and social services because of the behavioral and cognitive impacts of high blood lead levels, officials said.

Children exposed to lead show lower attention spans, according to health experts, impacting their ability to learn and, therefore, to succeed in the world.

Bay City commissioners made note of the improved water supply we now have as a result of a deal made to buy pure Lake Huron water from the Saginaw-Midland Water Supply Corporation. Our water no longer comes from the inner Saginaw Bay but instead from deep Lake Huron at Whitestone Point.

However, it took nearly three-quarters of a century for leadership to emerge to come to that agreement. Forgotten in this drama has been the initial groundwork by the late Mike Studders, a member of the Bay County Road Commission. Studders contacted S-M officials and opened the negotiations, finding acceptance because adequate supplies were available for sale.

Tom Paige of the Bay County Department of Water and Sewer did the work of finalizing the deal and setting up financing for a new water treatment plant. That was a monumental follow-up to the tentative opening provided by Studders.

We must point out that MyBayCity.com has been promoting a revival of negotiations with our neighbors in Saginaw and Midland for the new water from Lake Huron since 2004.

In researching for my book "Mysteries of Skull Island and the Alkali" I found that Bay City had a serious health crisis over water -- in 1908. Ancient history, but worth a mention. In that instance, low water in the bay caused the city to draw water from the Saginaw River.

Sewage from downstream communities backed up into the system from -- guess where -- Flint and other points south. A cholera epidemic resulted from the polluted water being forced into local homes and businesses.

We should take pride in the local leadership that finally put aside parochial considerations and assured pure water for Bay City and township customers through a partnership with Saginaw and Midland.

We can only offer sympathy for the disaster in human health, and a bad public relations tsunami, caused by toxic politics in Flint.

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